Saturday, 8 September 2012

The Prophecy of Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrandt

It looks like the Maya don't hold a complete monopoly on the prophetic significance of the year 2012. An interesting prophecy connected to the year 2012 was supposedly made by a Franciscian monk named Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno, who lived between the years 1319-1377. I'm still in the process of attempting to validate this prophecy, but so far there are several factors pointing to its authenticity. The prophecy is cited in a book called Miscellanea Francescana 1, edited by M. Faloci Pulignani, dating to 1886 - long before the prophetic significance of the year 2012 for the Meso-American cultures was discovered after the decipherment of the Mayan glyphs in the mid-20th century. This book in turn appears to base at least some of its information on a facsimile dating to the late 15th century called Legenda de' Beati del Terzo Ordine Sancto Francisco, (ed L. Temperini, Rome: Editrice Franciscanum, 1996), which contains the Legenda of Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno - as recorded by his companion and disciple Giusto della Rosa. Although I don't have access to this particular book to confirm that the prophecy is actually included there, so would be grateful if anyone else out there can confirm this. Known as The Worthy Shepherd Prophecy, Bl. Tomasuccio's vision is a variation of the Angelic Pope prophecies, which details how a future pontiff will heal the Church of schism following a time of turmoil:

"One from beyond the mountains shall become the Vicar Of God. Religious and clerics shall take part in this change. Outside the true path, there will be only disreputable men; I shrug my shoulders when the Bark of Peter is in danger and there is no one to lend it help... The schismatic shall fall into the scorn of the Italian faithful... By about twelve years shall the millennium have passed when the resplendent mantle of legitimate power shall emerge from the shadows where it was being kept by the schism. And beyond harm from the one who is blocking the door of salvation, for his deceitful schism shall have come to an end. And the mass of the faithful shall attach itself to the worthy Shepherd, who shall extricate each one from error and restore to the Church its beauty. He shall renew it."
(Miscellanea Francescana 1 p173)

Of course the most interesting aspect of this prophecy is the fact that it points to the time of the Second Pentecost to twelve years past the millennium - the year 2012. This would thus correspond with the contention of various commentators on the 2012 phenomenon that the Maya believed that this period would mark a major shift in spiritual thought, rather than being the date of a world-destroying cataclysm.

Given that the above prophecy foretells the emergence of the Worthy Shepherd (who is equated with the Angelic Pope) to restore the Church twelve years after the turn of the millennium, it would thus appear to suggest that a papal election would take place during this year. This leaves us to wonder if this prophecy is the true source of the "assassination plot" furore concerning
Cardinal Romeo brought to light by the Vatileaks scandal at the start of the year? In the earlier post concerning this controversy which you can find here, I suggested that Cardinal
Romeo may have based his musings that a new pope would be elected sometime in 2012 on a prophetic source of information, rather than being privy to the details of some assassination plot, as was
suggested by certain elements within the Italian media. At the time, I pondered if there was a date pointing to the year 2012 in the theoretical "hidden text" of Fatima. Now in retrospect, it seems that if Card. Romeo did base his speculations on a specific prophecy, it would almost certainly be that of Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno.

If we look at the exact wording of the prophecy however, it doesn't necessarily imply that a papal election would take place during the course of this year. The only thing it explicitly states is that the Church would be renewed at this date, and that this would mark the beginning of the return of schismatics to the Church at the Second Pentecost, under the leadership of the Worthy Shepherd/Angelic Pope. I suppose the only real way of authenticating this prophecy is by waiting until the end of the year to see if anything takes place.

Of further interest is the fact that the Worthy Shepherd Prophecy also depicts the Church as the Bark of St. Peter being battered by storms during this time period - which is highly reminiscent of St. John Bosco's Dream of the Two Pillars.

Don Bosco's Dream of the Two Pillars

These prophecies also allude to Christ's calming of the storm, which in many respects appears to be another example of "enacted prophecy":

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
(Mark 4:35-41)

When the storm batters the ship, filling it with water (symbolising the Great Apostasy), the disciples begin to lose faith, fearing because Jesus appears to have been slumbering and unresponsive. Yet Christ is always present in the Bark of St. Peter, even if at times he seems as if he is asleep.

"...behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matt 28:20)

With a few gentle words, Jesus restores peace and calm to the stormy waters - again recalling Don Bosco's prophetic dream:

At this point, a great convulsion takes place. All the ships that until then had
fought against the Pope’s ship are scattered; they flee away, collide and break
to pieces one against another. Some sink and try to sink others. Several small
ships that had fought gallantly for the Pope race to be the first to bind
themselves to those two columns. Many other ships, having retreated through fear
of the battle, cautiously watch from far away; the wrecks of the broken ships
having been scattered in the whirlpools of the sea, they in their turn sail in
good earnest to those two columns, and having reached them, they make themselves
fast to the hooks hanging down from them and their they remain safe, together
with the principal ship, on which is the Pope. Over the sea their reigns a great
calm.

It is interesting that Pope Benedict XVI addressed this theme of the Church as the Bark of St. Peter during his reflections on the Ninth Station in his Way of the Cross address in the year 2005 - where once again he alluded to the visions of St. Hildegard of Bingen, which depicted the Church in clothes sullen with filth before the period of renewal:

What can the third fall of Jesus under the Cross say to us? We have considered the fall of man in general, and the falling of many Christians away from Christ and into a godless secularism. Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the holy sacrament of his Presence abused, how often must he enter empty and evil hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words! How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise us up whenever we fall! All this is present in his Passion. His betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his Body and Blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison -- Lord, save us (cf. Matthew 8: 25).PRAYERLord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all.

It should be worth once again comparing the above statement with St. Hildegards' visions below:

In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 1170, I had been lying on my sick-bed for
a long time when, fully conscious in body and in mind, I had a vision of a woman
of such beauty that the human mind is unable to comprehend. She stretched in
height from earth to heaven. Her face shone with exceeding brightness and her
gaze was fixed on heaven. She was dressed in a dazzling robe of white silk and
draped in a cloak, adorned with stones of great price. On her feet she wore
shoes of onyx. But her face was stained with dust, her robe was ripped down the
right side, her cloak had lost its sheen of beauty and her shoes had been
blackened. And she herself, in a voice loud with sorrow, was calling to the
heights of heaven, saying, ‘Hear, heaven, how my face is sullied; mourn, earth,
that my robe is torn; tremble, abyss, because my shoes are
blackened!’

And she continued: ‘I lay hidden in the heart of the Father
until the Son of Man, who was conceived and born in virginity, poured out his
blood. With that same blood as his dowry, he made me his
betrothed.

For my Bridegroom’s wounds remain fresh and open as long as
the wounds of men’s sins continue to gape. And Christ’s wounds remain open
because of the sins of priests. They tear my robe, since they are violators of
the Law, the Gospel and their own priesthood; they darken my cloak by
neglecting, in every way, the precepts which they are meant to uphold; my shoes
too are blackened, since priests do not keep to the straight paths of justice,
which are hard and rugged, or set good examples to those beneath them.
Nevertheless, in some of them I find the splendour of
truth.’

And I heard a voice from heaven which said: ‘This image
represents the Church. For this reason, O you who see all this and who listen to
the word of lament, proclaim it to the priests who are destined to offer
guidance and instruction to God’s people and to whom, as to the apostles, it was
said: go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation’ (Mk
16:15)”

The image of the woman before the altar in front of the eyes of God that I
saw earlier was now also shown to me again so that I could also see her from the
navel down. From the navel to the groin she had various scaly spots. In her
[genitalia] there appeared a monstrous and totally black head with fiery eyes,
ears like the ears of a donkey, nostrils and mouth like those of a lion,
gnashing with vast open mouth and sharpening its horrible iron teeth in a horrid
manner.

From that head to the knees the image was white and red,
bruised as with many a beating. From the knees to the two white transverse zones
which crosswise seemed to touch the bottoms of the feet from above, the image
appeared to be bloody. Lo, the monstrous head removed itself from its place with
so great a crash that the entire image of the woman was shaken in all its
members. Something like a a great mass of much dung was joined to the head;
then, lifting itself upon a mountain, it attempted to ascend to the height of
heaven. A stroke like thunder came suddenly and the head was repelled with such
strength that it both fell from the mountain and gave up the ghost. After this a
stinking cloud suddenly enveloped the whole mountain. The head was surrounded
with such great filth in the cloud that the people standing by were struck with
the greatest terror as the cloud stayed upon the mountain somewhat longer. The
people standing there beheld it and struck with much fear said to each other: "
Woe! Woe! What is this? What does that seem to be? Who will help us, unfortunate
as we are? Who will deliver us? We are ignorant of how we have been deceived.
Almighty God, have mercy on us. Let us, oh let us return. Let us prepare the
covenant of Christ's Gospel, since we have been bitterly deceived." Behold, the
feet of the aforementioned female image appeared to be white, giving out a
brightness above that of the sun. I heard a voice from heaven saying to me:
"Even though all things on earth are tending toward their end, so hardships and
calamities is bowed down to its End, nevertheless, the Spouse of my Son, though
much weakened in her children, will never be destroyed either by the heralds of
the Son of Perdition or by the Destroyer himself, however much she will be
attacked by them. At the End of time she will arise more powerful and more
secure; she will appear more beautiful and shining so that she may go forth in
this way more sweetly and more agreeably to the embraces of her Beloved. The
vision which you saw signifies all this in mystic
fashion."

One thought.. do you think the assassination plot was driven by the prophecies of Don Bosco and St Malachy. The part of the dream where the pope is hurt and gets back up ( John Paul II) and then the pope is hurt and killed ( Benedict XVI). A new Pope arises to replace him fits St Malachy that there is only one more pope.

I would appreciate your wonderful insight. Sorry if you have already addressed this in past posts. I am fairly new to your blog

I think any time there is mention of an assassination plot on the Holy Father, these prophecies, including Fatima and La Salette, are brought once again to the fore. I have covered Don Bosco's dream of the two pillars in several posts - you should be able to find them by using the blog search bar.An important post in this respect can be found at the following link: http://unveilingtheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/prophecies-of-martyr-pope.html This post attempts to group all of the prophecies concerning the future martyrdom of a pope.Following the sequence of events in the dream of the two pillars, it seems that the Second Pentecost will take place after the martyrdom of a pope, and that this event (the fulfillment of the Third Secret) will in some way instigate the renewal of the Church - when the pope secures the Bark of Peter to the two pillars in Don Bosco's dream.In my book I also note that the phrase "Glory of the Olives" in the mottoes of St. Malachy appears to allude the Two Witnesses of Rev 11, who are described as the "two olive trees that stand before the Lord of all the earth" - and who similarly share the fate of martyrdom. I believe that the Two Witnesses are connected to the prophecies of the Angelic Pope and Great Monarch. Again, if you search each of these topics in the blog search bar, you should find a lot more information.

Certainly... The "about twelve years" could just as easily point to 2013 also.I mention that it doesn't necessarily imply a papal election above, I merely note that it could be construed this way - quote:

"If we look at the exact wording of the prophecy however, it doesn't necessarily imply that a papal election would take place during the course of this year. The only thing it explicitly states is that the Church would be renewed at this date, and that this would mark the beginning of the return of schismatics to the Church at the Second Pentecost, under the leadership of the Worthy Shepherd/Angelic Pope."

The "Worthy Shepherd" who ushers in the Second Pentecost could be Benedict XVI, who has been striving for unity throughout the course of his pontificate. Indeed I hope that this is the case.

In light of the current Pope's abdication, it would seem that we are soon to know if this prophecy is indeed accurate or not. By the way, 12 years after the millennium is 2013. The millennium ends on 2001, then add 12.

It is possible that the millennium refers to the time since the Church began, or about 30 AD at the time of Pentecost. This would mean that the real date would be c. 2042, giving some time for the future schism and the emergence of the "angelic pastor, the true pope chosen by God. Heavenly time isn't necessarily the same as earthly time.

Actually, the Millennium began in 2001, not 2000.The first century began in AD 1, and completed in AD 100, with the second century beginning in 101.Likewise, the first millennium began in 1, ended in 1000. The second millennium began in 1001, ended in 2000, and the third began in 2001.

So, the 12 years after the beginning of the millennium - 2013. And, we have a papal election coming up in a month.

A lot of people are pointing out that 12 years past the millennium probably fits 2013 better - which we now know is in fact a year in which there will be a papal election. I've left this post as it was when it first went up so that people could clearly see that it was published some months before Pope Benedict XVI's shock abdication.

Fr. René Thibaut, S.J. is his work La Mystérieuse prophétie des papes (Namur: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de philosophie et lettres,1951, Imprimatur: June 28, 1945, Et. Jos. Carton de Wiart)also discusses the importance of the year 2012 based upon his scrutiny of the Prophecy of St. Malachy.

It's amazing me the way events seem to unfolding so quickly...I've never came across Fr. Thibaut's work before, but I think it is absolutely astonishing that he pointed to the year 2012. You should read this post as well:

Greetings and Salutations! Excellent essay! In reading the alleged prophecy (I say "alleged" for the same reason that news anchors will finish the description of a body that's been tied up, beaten, and thrown over a cliff by saying "Police suspect foul play"), I keep thinking of the alleged apparition at Garabandal, where there is supposed to be a great sign as well as an "Illumination of Conscience". One of the results of that Illumination is to be a great return of Protestants to the Church. What if this Illumination becomes the beginning of a Second Pentecost?

Also, in reading how "the resplendent mantle of legitimate power shall emerge from the shadows where it was being kept by the schism," I suddenly had an image of the Anglican Church returning en masse to the True Faith. What if the "Great Catholic Monarch" described in other prophecies is to come from the child presently carried by the Duchess of Cambridge?

Finally, I have been waiting for an English translation of Fr. Thibaut's work into English. Imagine my shock and dismay when it appears that two anti-Catholic Protestants have used his work to write a book titled "Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here". I'm not going to say anything more about this book, save to note that the authors also wrote a book describing how the Vatican is waiting for the aliens to arrive to implement our plan to have an alien pope lead us to "salvation". 'nuff said.

Please, G_D, let there be a decent translation of Fr. Thibaut's book into English and let it come soon!

The schism mentioned here almost certainly refers to the Great Schism of 1054, between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. If so, it would be the completion of Fatima - that Russia would be converted. But the Church approved prophecies of La Salette mention that the conversion of England will play a pivotal role in the spread of the faith to everywhere else:

"A great country, now Protestant, in the north of Europe, will be converted; by the support of this country all the other nations of the world will be converted."

Prophecy of Blessed Tomasuccio of Foligno, 1319-1377): "One from beyond the mountains shall become the Vicar Of God..."

Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio - Born on December 17, 1936, of a father employed by the railroad and a stay-at-home mother, this son of Italian immigrants from Piedmont. The name Piedmont comes from medieval Latin Pedemontium or Pedemontis, i.e., ad pedem montium, meaning “at the foot of the mountains".

Also "berg" means "mountain" in several languages. As well as being the name of a river in Lombardy, "oglio" can also mean "hotchpotch" "mixture" or "medley".

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Oglio

So rather roughly, Bergoglio can mean "mountain range". The word "oglio" is also the direct equivalent of "olio" which is derived from the Latin oleum - which means "olive oil".

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/olio#Italian

So it can also mean the "mountain of olive oil", which of course immediately brings to mind the Mount of Olives. We can do some additional wordplay with the surname Bergoglio. The Italian word "orgoglio" means "pride". So we can also see here an allusion to the "pride of the olives", or as St. Malachy puts it the "glory of the olive". This would help to verify my newly revised theory that Pope Benedict XVI was not actually the "glory of the olive" himself, but rather is the one who opened the doors of the Temple to reveal the "glory of the olive" - a term which is directly related to the two olive trees that stand before the Lord of all the earth in Rev 11:

"These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth."(Rev 11:4)

“Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut."(Rev 3:8)

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.(Rev 11:19)

I was not raised anglican not catholic but I have been enjoying your blog. I find it very fascinating. Isn't Argentina geographically within the region of the Andes the longest mountain range in South America?

About Me

As part of research for my book Unveiling the Apocalypse: Prophecy in Catholic Tradition, I studied the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic languages before graduating in 2006 with First Class honours. My book is the product of around ten years of original research. This blog is intended as a means of supplementing the material presented in the book by providing relevant up-to-date information.